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Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

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Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#141

Post by masswerk »

karl11 wrote: post #3

Just to make sure I understand this — the argument is that in order to combat authoritarianism, Silicon Valley companies should censor more content?

I think, it's about the opposite of censorship: selective amplification by recommendation, governed by engagement metrics.

(What would have once been a mere footnote or a tiny bar fight, is now amplified by bringing in the equivalent of entire cities to the scene. What was small becomes big, and what would have been big goes unseen. This is a manipulation of social discourse in dimensions previously unknown.)

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#142

Post by 8note »

perl4ever wrote: post #135
pessimizer wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't care if someone was a felon or you think they're not informed enough (who decided that?). I don't even care if somebody is currently in prison; I think every prison needs a polling place and facilities for on-site journalists/reporters who are covering what is going on inside. If your elections could be significantly moved by the votes of prisoners, you live in a failed state.

I have seen it claimed that in the US, elections are significantly moved by the votes of prisoners, in the sense that, while prisoners may not vote, they are counted as inhabitants of the county they are imprisoned in, so they increase representation of those who can vote nearby. Locations of prisons tend to be rural and have very different demographics from the places where prisoners would otherwise be living. Decid…

I think it's obviously where the prison is.

Their vote should be able to impact the conditions of the prison

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#143

Post by throwawaylinux »

pvaldes wrote: post #124
throwawaylinux wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian content? Would questioning the validity of an election be an example of it?

> Would questioning the validity of an election be an example of it? If you can show solid evidence, or any evidence, supporting your claim, not. If all the proofs of foul play that you show is a model of a smoking firegun made with cheetos and a lot of proven lies. Yes, Probably.

> If you can show solid evidence, or any evidence, supporting your claim, not.

There was no evidence suggesting Trump's election win was not valid. The wild delusional conspiracy theories about how Trump colluded with Putin to hack the election under Obama's nose were not evidence, mind you.

So all those people, politicians, corporations, celebrities, and "journalists" peddling the Trump Russia conspiracy theories and false claims without evidence were anti-democratic pro-authoritarian? Or will there always be some excuse when "your" side does it?

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#144

Post by pvaldes »

voz_ wrote: post #60

Nobel Peace prizes? The one that Obama got for drone striking Pakistani kids? Or the one that Arafat got for bombing Israeli kids? Oh no, wait, the one that Kissinger got for bombing Vietnamese kids, must be that one, right?

Obama never got a Nobel for killing Pakistani kids. Nobel academics can't predict the future. To claim that is not really fair.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#146

Post by F6F6FA »

markvdb wrote: post #137
seany wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say shit on the internet...

Shit, I didn't know that! Serious face back on. Have you ever seen a concise word for algorithmicly-drowning-people-in-shit-on-social-media-because-profit?

Pooptimized.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#147

Post by dionidium »

nextaccountic wrote: post #140
dionidium wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say this was “figured out” like you think it’s some kind of natural law that was discovered by scientists. It’s not. It’s a value judgement. It’s not at all clear the trade-off is worth it and the very quote you supplied argues for “intolerance of intolerance” as a kind of a last resort, once things turn violent. Second, as a practical matter, it’s not at all clear what constitutes intolerance. If you think the s…

> If you think the state has standing to adjudicate intolerance It has standing to judge everything else, but not intolerance?

The state does not, in fact, render judgement on most of the mundane details of your everyday life. You get in disagreements, sometimes people are hateful, people say things you don’t like, and on and on, and the state has no opinion on any of it.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#148

Post by yesenadam »

whitepaint wrote: post #6

Aren't governments (especially Germany and Australia for what they are doing at the moment) way more scarier than big tech? I am not scared of Google or Facebook at all. I am, however, scared of governments. Especially seeing how the pandemic was handled and how little resistance the handling got from the citizens.

So uh, why do you put Australia in your two-especially-scary-governments-in-the-world list? That seems extremely odd to me.

Sydney here. I've seen oblique mentions like this a couple of times on here recently and asked about it, as I've no idea what would inspire such a comment, but no-one answered until now. Well, for one thing, we don't have nuclear weapons pointed at anyone...

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#149

Post by pvaldes »

fareesh wrote: post #113

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded Barack Obama, Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger. It is a joke relic of an organization that deserves nothing but mockery. I don't know much about this year's recipients but, per article, they seem to think that the tech companies can engage in more censorship in order to fight misinformation, and somehow this fights authoritarianism. Truly incredible stuff. If it's a true and complete re…

It always was a soft power weapon. Everybody knows that there is a strong political component in some of the categories.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#150

Post by christophilus »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #139

Has Nobel bar been lowered? I can't tell if this is a misunderstanding of the current state of the world, hypocrisy, or a combination of both. The State (as well as traditional Media), regardless of country, is losing its power and influence. Big Tech knows more and thus is able to influence more. The USA and other "democracies" are not immune to this shift. If nothing else, Covid has swung the pendulum back a bit, o…

When was the bar high for the Peace prize? It’s seemed like a misnomer for a long time. Someone else mentioned Arafat and Kissinger being notorious examples.
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